Gamification startup KidzWeekend wins Startup Weekend Dubai

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Startup Weekend Dubai is quickly becoming a rite of passage for
many serious startups, who come to the weekend like a band of
travelers stopping at an oasis before a long walk through the
desert. The intense three-day affair includes initial pitches, team
formation, market validation, designing the business model,
prototype development and final pitches to judges who award prizes,
and more importantly, bragging rights.

At this year's SW Dubai, held at the Xpose Idea Factory, a creative
space at AlSerkal Avenue, ideas
were born, others were shelved, many were validated, and all had
their day in the sun as pitches to mentors, peers, and judges. The
feedback for the weekend was overwhelmingly positive, with many
participants reporting that they felt exhilarated, energized, and
encouraged by the experience and support of mentors and their
peers.

Prizes were substantial and included cash, Wamda Card, marketing support, trade
licenses, tablets, and mentoring. Most participants I spoke to –
before the winners were announced- professed that the prizes
weren’t the real reason they participated. Nevertheless, whispers
of longing for the tablets circulated the room and winners seemed
to welcome the support.

Kidzweekend won the competition with a website that allows
parents to assign and track tasks like room-cleaning to their kids,
in exchange for weekend rewards like toys and events. Team member
Hiba Daboul described the weekend as “fantastic”, and highlighted
that the best part of the weekend was the networking and
opportunity to create something special for kids. “My generation
didn’t get to do all of this”, she said. Runners-up included:

CocoEvents, an app that allows conference attendees to meet one
another based on shared interests

Rentalocal, a startup that turns local residents into guides
and recommenders for visiting tourists

Garajack, an app for Dubai motorists that tracks their auto
maintenance spending and connects them to qualified and specialized
service garages in their area

Other startups, such as Healthy Box, brought the subscription
box model pioneered by companies like Birch Box into healthy eating
territory, offering to provide a month’s worth of healthy snacks
through the mail. Irhal, a returning startup, is an app that
provides Muslim tourists anywhere in the world with info on
everything from halal restaurants to local prayer times.

Qirtas was another idea, that, like
Qordoba Books, aims to first digitize Arabic books for
e-readers and later produce a dedicated e-reader device for Arabic
e-books, to serve the lack of digital content the the
5th-most used language worldwide.

Perhaps the most innovative idea was Startup BarBQ, a cofounder-matching
and team-performance-monitoring app targeted at incubators. It
allows startup teams to assess and rate how well they work
together, suggests matches, and provides training. Perhaps the
fastest-validated idea there, the startup signed six incubators as
paying customers during the weekend.

Few participants had any complaints, but one element that some
said could have been stronger was the feedback from judges. From
questions and comments, it was clear that the judges –some from
corporate backgrounds – seemed more concerned about long-term
expansion plans and scaling operations than customer acquisition
strategies or business model validation, which are more immediately
critical for a startup built over a weekend.

Another area some participants found lacking was the fact that
there were few technical mentors, although mentors like Egyptian
entrepreneur Mahmoud Tawfik of Fixed Solutions, an
entrepreneur who also developed the app for the weekend, were there
to advise developers on technical decisions.

The 17-strong lineup of final presentations were fresh and
innovative enough to hold the audience’s attention, with some truly
intriguing ideas and execution plans. Following the pitches,
startup teams nervously gathered in small groups with other
participants, getting final bits of advice and awaiting
results.

Shortly before winners were announced, Startup BarBQ founder
Tamer Fathi whisked around the room, stopping only to brandish an
iPad and breathlessly exclaim: “We got
mentioned in Think Marketing Magazine, and the company is only
two hours old!”

And with that, another batch of Dubai startups are released into
the ecosystem.

Kia Davis is a mentor, advisor, temporary operating executive, and "Fairy Godmother" for startups, living in Dubai. Currently, she's working as aÂ Startup and Growth Architect for Jigsaw Group.Â You can find her on Twitter @kiardavis.